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r. TVTS HISTORICAL J. CISTY
UITT 4 LOBRY
coLuaai.;, a-;- . 652U
! ctt mttv BSBBBBpSB
1 1
Instant buddies uppjuii " iy
parsnips shoppers" bypass BS& JET1BB Martina Navratilova and Chris E9BW dale and Gary Hart have made W
these odd- shap- ed spectacles of WJB&& e& 2R& m Evert Uoyd both won easily in ffikTOb e1 peace and said " fear of a sec--
the produce aisle because they " WTHfaKi their PenmS matches of the H& VSPl 1 ond Reagan term" will heal ... w
don't know what to do with ' ' fflJJBHPffiB 1984 Wunbledon tennis champi- - Hie J g their differences and unite . ft "
them. That's too bad, says nu-- jQIBHBtw 1 onships Navratilova is trying BflfflB - x I their party. They have also , R -
tntion instructor Mary Thomp-- wlffl& SBk A to wm a Wunbledon champion- - HffiMfrji ' -- y f 1 said they will discuss a Mon- - L v
son, because little- know- n veg-- L3 iSBBGfr'fi shlP for a second consecutive MHW v t'l daleHart ticket to run against jr " 1
etables add variety to the diet. sBL3SK3&& 3mtim year; Lloyd is trying to stop umMBa Vm the Republicans in November & b & Z I
See Food, Page IB. wSSSSSBBSSBk her. See Sports, Page 10A H9B T JtM B See Page 5A. W m& BB i 1
76th Year No. 23( 5 Good Morning! It's Wednesday, June 27, 1984 8 Sections 56 Pages 25 Cents
Senate ties highway funds to drinking age of 21
WASHINGTON ( UPI) Spurred by pleas
to save hundreds of young lives per year, the
Senate voted Tuesday to restrict federal
highway construction funds for states that do
not enact a 21- year-- old drinking age within
two years
The measure was adopted over the pro-tests
of conservatives, who said it would
curb states' rights and discriminate against
young drivers. But backers argued it would
stem highway deaths, especially those of
young people who drive over " blood bor-ders"
to neighboring states to dnnk.
The drinking age provision, which was
passed by an 81- 1- 6 vote, would cut federal
highway construction funds 5 percent in fis-cal
1987, which begins Oct 1, 1988, and 10
percent in fiscal 1988 for states that do not
raise their drinking ages to 21 The provision
was an amendment to a child safety bill
Offered by Sen Frank Lautenberg, D-- N J ,
it also would add 5 percent to highway safety
grants for states imposing mandator) jail
terms and license revocation for drunk driv-ing
offenses.
The House adopted a drinking age amend-ment
to a different bill June 7 and not in-cluding
the mandatory sentencing provisions
so another House vote will be needed
President Reagan endorsed the concept June
13
Before adopting the Iautenberg provision,
the Senate defeated, 65- 3- 2, a rival approach
offered by conservative members to add 5
percent to a state's highway safety money
for enacting a 21- year-- old age drinking law, 5
percent more for mandatory sentencing and
1 percent more for every 1 percent decrease
in alcohol- relate- d deaths
Twenty- thre- e states now have 21- year--
old
drinking laws, four of which approved them
this year
Lautenberg said his punishment approach
is the most effective way to end a " crazy
quilt of drinking ages in neighboring states "
' ' There is no way to address the needless
tragedy of young people driving into neigh-boring
states without a uniform national
drinking age," Lautenberg said " It's time
to use the stick sparingly but effectively."
The National Highway Traffic Safety Ad
ministration estimates 1,250 lives a year
would be saved by a higher drinking age,
Lautenberg said Half the nation's teenage
highway deaths are caused b drunk driv-ing,
he said, and although teenagers account
for only 10 percent of drivers, they are m- -
olved in 21 percent of alcohol- relate- d high-way
deaths
The Lautenberg proposal also had support
from law enforcement and insurance groups,
Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the Ameri-can
Medical Association, and the National
PTA The Presidential Commission on
Drunk Driving recommended such an ap-proach
in a report last December
But opponents, who favored the incentive
approach, said the Lautenberg proposal
tramples on states' nghti b forung a feder- alla- w
on them
What shall be net'" asked Sen Gordon
Humphrey R-- H . who offered the incen-tive
amendment with Sen Ste f S mms K- Ida- ho
Shall we force states through coer-cion
to mandate use of seat belts"'
" Where do we stop enlarging the power of
the federal government and protect the sov-ereignty
of the states''" Humphrev asked
lhe US Student Association, which ar-gued
in congressional hearings against a
higher drinking age. endorsed the Symms
measure Monday I- auten-berg
said the stu
dent group's support is evidence the S mms
measure would not work
Praise the Lord
Couple works to hold group
of faithful followers together
By Linda Stelter
Mlssouflan ataff writer
Shelby Payne is first to unlock the
church this Wednesday evening.
Sporting a bow tie and felt hat, the
portly man has ambled from his
home, only a few blocks away, to the
small concrete block building on
Worley Street
As 8 p m. draws near, the congre-gation
assembles, surrounded in the
soft summer heat of evening. Two el-derly
worshippers, the devoted few,
pass through the door They choose
their places from the 30 metal
chairs
" The scriptures say, where two or
three are assembled, loving and
agreeing, God is present," quotes
Payne from behind the lectern. He is
68 years old.
" Amen, that's right, praise the
Lord." A general nodding of the
heads comes from the congregation
of three.
Testimonies of thankfulness follow
each song.
" I thank the good Lord for waking
me up this morning, I thank him for
the sunlight and for the goodness in
this world ... I thank him for letting
me see another day of life, and for
sparing Columbia the bad weather
and flooding that other parts of the
country received " says Payne's
64- year-- old wife, Ocie. She smiles,
hands clasped.
Outside, radio- wire- d cars speed
past blaring cacophonous interrupti-ons,
only to halt at the cross street
100 yards away. Inside, a tambou-rine
keeps the beat, while the voices,
though few in number, unite in lei-surely,
genuine praise to the Lord.
Shelby Payne was appointed pas-tor
to Worley Street's Church of God
in Christ Congregational in 1965.
Since then, the Lie of him and his
wife, who is referred to as Mother
Payne, has centered around the
church. And in the past 19 years,
Shelby, who is referred to as Elder
Payne, has only been away from the
church for 17 days
And that was for eye surgery.
Ocie had surgery once that kept
her away for about six months.
" As sooii as I was home, and as
soon as I could put my clothes on, I
wasbackin church," she says
This dedicated husband and wife
team open the white doors of the
church four tunes a week: Sunday
morning, Sunday evening, Wednes-day
evening and Friday evening.
" We can't always do what we want
to do," Elder Payne says. " But we
do it according to the pattern Christ
left for us."
" You have to think about eterni-ty,"
Mother Payne says." Where are
you going to spend eternity7
" We're either going to get our-selves
ready for Christ when he re-turns,
or else we're going to be cast
into the bottomless pit," she says.
" That's the choice you and I are
going to have to make so that's
what we're working on. . . .
" You have to spend eternity some-where,"
she adds.
The couple has not always enter-tained
such thoughts of holiness
The turnaig point came years ago
Ocie sull remembers the dates
when they were saved Jan 22 and
24, 1945. Elder Payne says it was an
experience he will never forget. He
was in a crouched position, unable to
stand upright and speaking in tong-ues.
For file initiate, the moment
still holds mystical value.
But the irony lies in Shelby's sub-sequent
path to the ministry. He
says he was " always m trouble"
when he was growing up in Mar-shall,
Mo Nonetheless, he says his
childhood experiences pointed him
in God's direction.
He cites the day his brother died.
He was 11
" The undertaker laid his hand on
my head and told my mother, " This
boy gonna be a preacher.'
" At the time, I hated preachers
and I almost hated him for saying
that," Shelby recalls
Shelby and Ocie Payne greet a member of their small church on Worley Street. .......
There were other signs.
A few years later, he was walking
along the road to his hilltop home.
When he arrived, he met a man at
the side of his house. He'd never
seen the man before.
" I spoke to him and he spoke to
me," Shelby says
" He said, ' You live here' and I
said, ' Yeah.
" He said, ' I want to tell you some-thing
this crowd you running with,
they gonna get you in trouble - you
better stop running with them '
" And then I went around the house
this away, and he went around that
away, and I haven't seen that man
since."
Despite his early aversion to reli-gion,
Shelby regularly attended
church in Marshall, an experience
which frequently proved unpleasant
For example, he swears that each
time he attended church, the min-ister
would be talking about some-thing
horrible and pointing his finger
right at him
" After being run out of one Holi-ness
Church in Marshall, I went to
another town and I know this man
didn't know anything about me, so I
went in to that church and sat down
in the back," recalls Shelby, whose
broad smile indicated that he re-lishes
the tale.
" And that man did the same thing
he tore me up . . and after that I
stopped going to church for a long
time."
Shelby was 16 years old
Ocie says that's the age that a lot
of kids leave the church today
There used to be a lot more kids
here," she says
' But the number of kids attending
has gradually declined They drift
away and start doing wordly things
I give them until they ' re 16 "
Ocie was 16 when she married
Shelby She was quite voung when
See CHURCH Page16A
By Undo C. Puig
Mlaaourlan staff writer
When a major regional mall burst
into the outskirts of Ames, Iowa, the- downto-wn
retail establishment was
devastated. Downtown Bowling
Green, Ky. wanted to avoid similar
predation by the new regional mall
in town, so like a chameleon, it
changed colors, turning from a
mostly retail area to a primarily of-fice
and professional In Jefferson
City, downtown merchants brag that
business has never been better since
Capitol Mall opened its doors outside
the city.
Echoes of each city's experience
resound throughout downtown Co-lumbia
as retail and business lead-ers
predict doom or delight for the
area when the proposed Columbia
Mall opens. There & no consensus;
opinions r$ as pkntiful as shgaves
of grain in a wheat field. No ona real-ly
knows what will happen.
To look at the circumstances sur- -
rounding each downtown's reaction
to the new mall may offer an insight
into what downtown Columbia can
expect
All three cases underline one be-lief
held in common by most down-town
experts and shopping center
analysts- - There is no typical effect
on a downtown from a major region-al
mall. The consequences depend on
community concern for the area,
physical appearance, accessibility,
the mix of stores in the downtown
and at the mall, and on the individu-al
merchants.
Columbia's downtown has faced
adversity before when Parkade
Plaza and Biscayne Mall were built
In 1662 and 1972, respectively. City
Public Works Director Ray Beck re-members
that about the time Par
kade opened, the city had Just put to
gether a comprehensive study on the
future of Columbia. As acting plan-ning
director, Beck and other city
leaders conducted meetings with re-tail
merchant associations and busi-nesses
across the city. Although
Beck says the City Comprehensive
Plan did not foresee insurmountable
problems for downtown, " out of
some of those meetings, I think from
time to time, came the prediction of
doom for the downtown "
Bill Bates, president of Boone
County National Bank, remembers
that time, but says that m the end,
neither mall seriously affected the
downtown area.
" I can't really say that the mer-chants
were affected," he says " It
may be that those malls weren't that
big." Parkade currently has 31
stores, with J. C. Penney the anchor;
Biscayne has 42 stores end is
anchored by Montgomery Wards
and Wal- Mar- t.
Come 1983 or 1988, however, down-town
will be dealing with a much
more formidable foe
" The mall will definitely have an
effect on every retailer in the city of
Columbia, including those iv down-town,"
says Ed Gaebler, executive
director of Columbia's Special Busi-ness
District, a downtown tax dis-trict
that makes recommendations
to the City Councd as to devel-opment
and management of the dis-trict
" Sure, there were people who
said when Parkade moved in that
downtown was doomed. And when
Biscayne Mall opened, they said
downtown would never survive this
one. But to add the few stores in Par-kade
and the 30- pl- us stores in Bis-cayne
Mall is a lot different than
adding the 54 stores in Green Mead-ows
and the 90 to 100 in the new
mall."
The reference to the 54 Green
Meadows stores is to the maximum
number of stores possible for the
Sock Bridge Shopping Center, cur-rently
under construction at Provi-dence
Read and NIf ong Boulevard.
Gaebler sees one of two things
happening here: Either the down-town
will suffer for a time, or the
mall will not live up to its sales pro-jections
The former occurred in Ames,
Iowa, with a period of affliction that
lasted a rough seven years
When General Growth built the
450,000 square- fo- ot North Grand
Mall in 1970, Ames had a population
of 39,000, of which approximately
half was students at Iowa State Uni-versity
Unlike Columbia, the uni-versity
campus in Ames is about two
and a half miles from downtown and
had its own retailcommercial area
called Campustown.
North Grand officially opened on
Thanksgiving, and was only partial-ly
occupied. It did, however, lure
three large store J. C. Penney,
Younkers Dapartment Store and
Woolworth from downtown to be
anchors at the mall.
Despite occupancy problems at
first, which mall developers say are
normal, the mall held its own and
blossomed within the year Down-town,
however, wilted Sales
dropped, stores went out of business
or moved to the mall and morale was
at an all- tun- e low Customers were
attracted to the new mall like moths
to light, says Bob Mickles, executive
vice president of the Ames Chamber
of Commerce
" We had at one time something
like 19 empty buildings," he says " It
took a lot of hand- holdi- ng with these
people during that period, a lot of
stroking "
Eventually, owners of buildings
and tenants who sull were around
got fed up with inaction and formed
the Downtown Betterment Associa-tion
in 1973. Together with the city of
Ames, the association hired Real Es-tate
Research Corp. cf Chicago to
study the future of downtown Ames.
The study precipitated a slew of
Saa PLANNING, Pago 3D
i

r. TVTS HISTORICAL J. CISTY
UITT 4 LOBRY
coLuaai.;, a-;- . 652U
! ctt mttv BSBBBBpSB
1 1
Instant buddies uppjuii " iy
parsnips shoppers" bypass BS& JET1BB Martina Navratilova and Chris E9BW dale and Gary Hart have made W
these odd- shap- ed spectacles of WJB&& e& 2R& m Evert Uoyd both won easily in ffikTOb e1 peace and said " fear of a sec--
the produce aisle because they " WTHfaKi their PenmS matches of the H& VSPl 1 ond Reagan term" will heal ... w
don't know what to do with ' ' fflJJBHPffiB 1984 Wunbledon tennis champi- - Hie J g their differences and unite . ft "
them. That's too bad, says nu-- jQIBHBtw 1 onships Navratilova is trying BflfflB - x I their party. They have also , R -
tntion instructor Mary Thomp-- wlffl& SBk A to wm a Wunbledon champion- - HffiMfrji ' -- y f 1 said they will discuss a Mon- - L v
son, because little- know- n veg-- L3 iSBBGfr'fi shlP for a second consecutive MHW v t'l daleHart ticket to run against jr " 1
etables add variety to the diet. sBL3SK3&& 3mtim year; Lloyd is trying to stop umMBa Vm the Republicans in November & b & Z I
See Food, Page IB. wSSSSSBBSSBk her. See Sports, Page 10A H9B T JtM B See Page 5A. W m& BB i 1
76th Year No. 23( 5 Good Morning! It's Wednesday, June 27, 1984 8 Sections 56 Pages 25 Cents
Senate ties highway funds to drinking age of 21
WASHINGTON ( UPI) Spurred by pleas
to save hundreds of young lives per year, the
Senate voted Tuesday to restrict federal
highway construction funds for states that do
not enact a 21- year-- old drinking age within
two years
The measure was adopted over the pro-tests
of conservatives, who said it would
curb states' rights and discriminate against
young drivers. But backers argued it would
stem highway deaths, especially those of
young people who drive over " blood bor-ders"
to neighboring states to dnnk.
The drinking age provision, which was
passed by an 81- 1- 6 vote, would cut federal
highway construction funds 5 percent in fis-cal
1987, which begins Oct 1, 1988, and 10
percent in fiscal 1988 for states that do not
raise their drinking ages to 21 The provision
was an amendment to a child safety bill
Offered by Sen Frank Lautenberg, D-- N J ,
it also would add 5 percent to highway safety
grants for states imposing mandator) jail
terms and license revocation for drunk driv-ing
offenses.
The House adopted a drinking age amend-ment
to a different bill June 7 and not in-cluding
the mandatory sentencing provisions
so another House vote will be needed
President Reagan endorsed the concept June
13
Before adopting the Iautenberg provision,
the Senate defeated, 65- 3- 2, a rival approach
offered by conservative members to add 5
percent to a state's highway safety money
for enacting a 21- year-- old age drinking law, 5
percent more for mandatory sentencing and
1 percent more for every 1 percent decrease
in alcohol- relate- d deaths
Twenty- thre- e states now have 21- year--
old
drinking laws, four of which approved them
this year
Lautenberg said his punishment approach
is the most effective way to end a " crazy
quilt of drinking ages in neighboring states "
' ' There is no way to address the needless
tragedy of young people driving into neigh-boring
states without a uniform national
drinking age," Lautenberg said " It's time
to use the stick sparingly but effectively."
The National Highway Traffic Safety Ad
ministration estimates 1,250 lives a year
would be saved by a higher drinking age,
Lautenberg said Half the nation's teenage
highway deaths are caused b drunk driv-ing,
he said, and although teenagers account
for only 10 percent of drivers, they are m- -
olved in 21 percent of alcohol- relate- d high-way
deaths
The Lautenberg proposal also had support
from law enforcement and insurance groups,
Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the Ameri-can
Medical Association, and the National
PTA The Presidential Commission on
Drunk Driving recommended such an ap-proach
in a report last December
But opponents, who favored the incentive
approach, said the Lautenberg proposal
tramples on states' nghti b forung a feder- alla- w
on them
What shall be net'" asked Sen Gordon
Humphrey R-- H . who offered the incen-tive
amendment with Sen Ste f S mms K- Ida- ho
Shall we force states through coer-cion
to mandate use of seat belts"'
" Where do we stop enlarging the power of
the federal government and protect the sov-ereignty
of the states''" Humphrev asked
lhe US Student Association, which ar-gued
in congressional hearings against a
higher drinking age. endorsed the Symms
measure Monday I- auten-berg
said the stu
dent group's support is evidence the S mms
measure would not work
Praise the Lord
Couple works to hold group
of faithful followers together
By Linda Stelter
Mlssouflan ataff writer
Shelby Payne is first to unlock the
church this Wednesday evening.
Sporting a bow tie and felt hat, the
portly man has ambled from his
home, only a few blocks away, to the
small concrete block building on
Worley Street
As 8 p m. draws near, the congre-gation
assembles, surrounded in the
soft summer heat of evening. Two el-derly
worshippers, the devoted few,
pass through the door They choose
their places from the 30 metal
chairs
" The scriptures say, where two or
three are assembled, loving and
agreeing, God is present," quotes
Payne from behind the lectern. He is
68 years old.
" Amen, that's right, praise the
Lord." A general nodding of the
heads comes from the congregation
of three.
Testimonies of thankfulness follow
each song.
" I thank the good Lord for waking
me up this morning, I thank him for
the sunlight and for the goodness in
this world ... I thank him for letting
me see another day of life, and for
sparing Columbia the bad weather
and flooding that other parts of the
country received " says Payne's
64- year-- old wife, Ocie. She smiles,
hands clasped.
Outside, radio- wire- d cars speed
past blaring cacophonous interrupti-ons,
only to halt at the cross street
100 yards away. Inside, a tambou-rine
keeps the beat, while the voices,
though few in number, unite in lei-surely,
genuine praise to the Lord.
Shelby Payne was appointed pas-tor
to Worley Street's Church of God
in Christ Congregational in 1965.
Since then, the Lie of him and his
wife, who is referred to as Mother
Payne, has centered around the
church. And in the past 19 years,
Shelby, who is referred to as Elder
Payne, has only been away from the
church for 17 days
And that was for eye surgery.
Ocie had surgery once that kept
her away for about six months.
" As sooii as I was home, and as
soon as I could put my clothes on, I
wasbackin church," she says
This dedicated husband and wife
team open the white doors of the
church four tunes a week: Sunday
morning, Sunday evening, Wednes-day
evening and Friday evening.
" We can't always do what we want
to do," Elder Payne says. " But we
do it according to the pattern Christ
left for us."
" You have to think about eterni-ty,"
Mother Payne says." Where are
you going to spend eternity7
" We're either going to get our-selves
ready for Christ when he re-turns,
or else we're going to be cast
into the bottomless pit," she says.
" That's the choice you and I are
going to have to make so that's
what we're working on. . . .
" You have to spend eternity some-where,"
she adds.
The couple has not always enter-tained
such thoughts of holiness
The turnaig point came years ago
Ocie sull remembers the dates
when they were saved Jan 22 and
24, 1945. Elder Payne says it was an
experience he will never forget. He
was in a crouched position, unable to
stand upright and speaking in tong-ues.
For file initiate, the moment
still holds mystical value.
But the irony lies in Shelby's sub-sequent
path to the ministry. He
says he was " always m trouble"
when he was growing up in Mar-shall,
Mo Nonetheless, he says his
childhood experiences pointed him
in God's direction.
He cites the day his brother died.
He was 11
" The undertaker laid his hand on
my head and told my mother, " This
boy gonna be a preacher.'
" At the time, I hated preachers
and I almost hated him for saying
that," Shelby recalls
Shelby and Ocie Payne greet a member of their small church on Worley Street. .......
There were other signs.
A few years later, he was walking
along the road to his hilltop home.
When he arrived, he met a man at
the side of his house. He'd never
seen the man before.
" I spoke to him and he spoke to
me," Shelby says
" He said, ' You live here' and I
said, ' Yeah.
" He said, ' I want to tell you some-thing
this crowd you running with,
they gonna get you in trouble - you
better stop running with them '
" And then I went around the house
this away, and he went around that
away, and I haven't seen that man
since."
Despite his early aversion to reli-gion,
Shelby regularly attended
church in Marshall, an experience
which frequently proved unpleasant
For example, he swears that each
time he attended church, the min-ister
would be talking about some-thing
horrible and pointing his finger
right at him
" After being run out of one Holi-ness
Church in Marshall, I went to
another town and I know this man
didn't know anything about me, so I
went in to that church and sat down
in the back," recalls Shelby, whose
broad smile indicated that he re-lishes
the tale.
" And that man did the same thing
he tore me up . . and after that I
stopped going to church for a long
time."
Shelby was 16 years old
Ocie says that's the age that a lot
of kids leave the church today
There used to be a lot more kids
here," she says
' But the number of kids attending
has gradually declined They drift
away and start doing wordly things
I give them until they ' re 16 "
Ocie was 16 when she married
Shelby She was quite voung when
See CHURCH Page16A
By Undo C. Puig
Mlaaourlan staff writer
When a major regional mall burst
into the outskirts of Ames, Iowa, the- downto-wn
retail establishment was
devastated. Downtown Bowling
Green, Ky. wanted to avoid similar
predation by the new regional mall
in town, so like a chameleon, it
changed colors, turning from a
mostly retail area to a primarily of-fice
and professional In Jefferson
City, downtown merchants brag that
business has never been better since
Capitol Mall opened its doors outside
the city.
Echoes of each city's experience
resound throughout downtown Co-lumbia
as retail and business lead-ers
predict doom or delight for the
area when the proposed Columbia
Mall opens. There & no consensus;
opinions r$ as pkntiful as shgaves
of grain in a wheat field. No ona real-ly
knows what will happen.
To look at the circumstances sur- -
rounding each downtown's reaction
to the new mall may offer an insight
into what downtown Columbia can
expect
All three cases underline one be-lief
held in common by most down-town
experts and shopping center
analysts- - There is no typical effect
on a downtown from a major region-al
mall. The consequences depend on
community concern for the area,
physical appearance, accessibility,
the mix of stores in the downtown
and at the mall, and on the individu-al
merchants.
Columbia's downtown has faced
adversity before when Parkade
Plaza and Biscayne Mall were built
In 1662 and 1972, respectively. City
Public Works Director Ray Beck re-members
that about the time Par
kade opened, the city had Just put to
gether a comprehensive study on the
future of Columbia. As acting plan-ning
director, Beck and other city
leaders conducted meetings with re-tail
merchant associations and busi-nesses
across the city. Although
Beck says the City Comprehensive
Plan did not foresee insurmountable
problems for downtown, " out of
some of those meetings, I think from
time to time, came the prediction of
doom for the downtown "
Bill Bates, president of Boone
County National Bank, remembers
that time, but says that m the end,
neither mall seriously affected the
downtown area.
" I can't really say that the mer-chants
were affected," he says " It
may be that those malls weren't that
big." Parkade currently has 31
stores, with J. C. Penney the anchor;
Biscayne has 42 stores end is
anchored by Montgomery Wards
and Wal- Mar- t.
Come 1983 or 1988, however, down-town
will be dealing with a much
more formidable foe
" The mall will definitely have an
effect on every retailer in the city of
Columbia, including those iv down-town,"
says Ed Gaebler, executive
director of Columbia's Special Busi-ness
District, a downtown tax dis-trict
that makes recommendations
to the City Councd as to devel-opment
and management of the dis-trict
" Sure, there were people who
said when Parkade moved in that
downtown was doomed. And when
Biscayne Mall opened, they said
downtown would never survive this
one. But to add the few stores in Par-kade
and the 30- pl- us stores in Bis-cayne
Mall is a lot different than
adding the 54 stores in Green Mead-ows
and the 90 to 100 in the new
mall."
The reference to the 54 Green
Meadows stores is to the maximum
number of stores possible for the
Sock Bridge Shopping Center, cur-rently
under construction at Provi-dence
Read and NIf ong Boulevard.
Gaebler sees one of two things
happening here: Either the down-town
will suffer for a time, or the
mall will not live up to its sales pro-jections
The former occurred in Ames,
Iowa, with a period of affliction that
lasted a rough seven years
When General Growth built the
450,000 square- fo- ot North Grand
Mall in 1970, Ames had a population
of 39,000, of which approximately
half was students at Iowa State Uni-versity
Unlike Columbia, the uni-versity
campus in Ames is about two
and a half miles from downtown and
had its own retailcommercial area
called Campustown.
North Grand officially opened on
Thanksgiving, and was only partial-ly
occupied. It did, however, lure
three large store J. C. Penney,
Younkers Dapartment Store and
Woolworth from downtown to be
anchors at the mall.
Despite occupancy problems at
first, which mall developers say are
normal, the mall held its own and
blossomed within the year Down-town,
however, wilted Sales
dropped, stores went out of business
or moved to the mall and morale was
at an all- tun- e low Customers were
attracted to the new mall like moths
to light, says Bob Mickles, executive
vice president of the Ames Chamber
of Commerce
" We had at one time something
like 19 empty buildings," he says " It
took a lot of hand- holdi- ng with these
people during that period, a lot of
stroking "
Eventually, owners of buildings
and tenants who sull were around
got fed up with inaction and formed
the Downtown Betterment Associa-tion
in 1973. Together with the city of
Ames, the association hired Real Es-tate
Research Corp. cf Chicago to
study the future of downtown Ames.
The study precipitated a slew of
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